1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device that displays a display element representing a shift position.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, graphical meters have been known that use a display device such as a liquid crystal display for displaying vehicle meters on a screen (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-221915, for example).
Graphical meters have high flexibility in display on screens, which can achieve various types of novel mode of display. Some of such graphical meters display, for example, a display element representing the current shift position on a screen. A shift position is an operation position of a shift lever disposed near a driver's seat. The shift position corresponds to the shifting state (the reduction ratio) of a transmission mounted on a vehicle. For example, an automatic transmission has shift positions such as the parking “P”, the reverse (back) “R”, the neutral “N”, and the drive “D”. The driver needs to aware of the current shift position to drive the vehicle.
Typically, conventional graphical meters present the current shift position by switching display elements. For example, the character “P” is displayed when the shift position is in the parking and the character “D” is displayed when the shift position is in the driving, thereby presenting the current shift position to a driver.
Unfortunately, conventional display devices often display the above-described display elements in a smaller size than that of other display elements. In addition, the above-described display elements are not easily paid attention to during driving. For this reason, the driver has difficulty in finding a change in the display contents of the above-described display elements.